(LOS ANGELES, CA)—A week-long series of events—starting with a ticketed gala on Saturday, March 8—will celebrate the grand opening of Emerson Los Angeles (ELA), a spectacular new academic and residential facility that will enable the College to significantly expand its contribution to the city and to the entertainment and communication industries.

Also scheduled to attend the gala will be Emerson’s Board of Trustees, chaired by Jeffery Greenhawt ’68, Board of Overseers, chaired by Daniel H. Black P ’07, and Alumni Board, led by Patricia Peyton Martell ’84.

“Emerson LA will provide our students with an unparalleled hands-on experience that only living in this great city can offer,” said Emerson College President Lee Pelton. “The opening of this magnificent building on Sunset Boulevard makes a statement that Emerson is committed to the City of Los Angeles and to the entertainment and communication industries for the long term. The work we do here will solidify Emerson College’s reputation as the world’s leading institution of higher learning in communication and the arts.”

Designed by award-winning LA-based architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis, the new building—with its bold structure and sweeping forms—is an architecturally significant addition to the Hollywood skyline.

The new sustainable facility features a host of innovative amenities designed to provide students with the opportunity to pursue their creativity. The 10-story structure can house up to 217 students and includes wired classrooms, an open-air screening and live-performance space, a Dolby Surround 7.1 audio post-production suite, a 4K screening room, computer labs, mixing suites, and a planned green screen motion capture stage.

“In addition to expanding our existing undergraduate program, we will also be offering workshops, lectures, and other events to Emerson alumni and the community at large,” said Founding Director Kevin Bright. “We intend to be fully engaged with the City of Los Angeles and specifically the Hollywood community. Community service will be a big part of the new ELA,” Bright said.

Emerson students will participate in a minimum of two community service days per semester. Recently, students participated in the AIDS Walk LA, the Heal the Bay’s Nothin’ but Sand Beach Clean Up at Will Rogers State Beach, and will soon participate in the John Varvatos Stuart House Benefit to support the Rape Treatment Center.

“The building is designed to expand the interactive, social aspect of education,” said architect Thom Mayne. “We focused on creating with the broader community in mind—both in terms of public space and sustainable design,” Mayne said.

Anticipating a LEED Gold achievement, the building’s exterior features a dynamic sun shading system that adapts to changing weather conditions to maintain optimal indoor temperature and natural light levels. Heating and cooling of the building is further optimized through an innovative passive valence system developed by Buro Happold. Additional green design initiatives include: the use of recycled and rapidly renewable building materials; installation of efficient water-saving fixtures; a high-performance glass curtain-wall to minimize heat gain; landscaping and a living green wall; and a central management infrastructure to monitor overall building efficiency.

Now in its 27th year, the Los Angeles program will enroll more than 200 students for a semester-long internship course during the fall, spring, and summer terms. Since its inception, more than 4,300 students have participated in the LA program with concurrent professional internships at television and film studios, music companies, media outlets, marketing agencies, and related enterprises.

The College has begun developing academic programs beyond the existing undergraduate internship program that will extend the ELA experience to more students studying in the College’s School of the Arts and School of Communication. Additionally, ELA will offer post-graduate, certificate, and professional study programs.

A series of free events open to alumni, parents, and friends will take place in the days following the gala, including building tours throughout the week, a lecture by the architect Thom Mayne, a panel discussion on comedy, a panel discussion on the evolution of television in a digital world, and more.

Emerson is also engaged in raising money for the new Emerson Los Angeles Program. The Future Has Your Name On It! is a fundraising campaign for Emerson College Los Angeles. It is Emerson College’s first multi-year effort to secure $20 million or more in private support from individual donors, foundations, and corporations. Reaching this lofty goal will require the most ambitious fundraising effort in our history—one that will touch and transform every aspect of the College.

About Emerson College

Located in Boston, Massachusetts, opposite historic Boston Common and in the heart of the city’s Theatre District, Emerson College educates individuals who will solve problems and change the world through engaged leadership in communication and the arts, a mission informed by liberal learning. The College has 3,660 undergraduates and 829 graduate students from across the United States and 50 countries. Supported by state-of-the-art facilities and a renowned faculty, students participate in more than 60 student organizations and performance groups, 14 NCAA teams, student publications, honor societies, television stations including the Emerson Channel, and WERS-FM, the nation’s highest rated student-run radio station. Emerson is internationally known for its study and internship programs in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., the Netherlands, London, China, and the Czech Republic. The grand opening of its LA-based facility is scheduled for March 8, 2014. For more information, visit www.emerson.edu.

About Morphosis Architects

Morphosis is a collaborative architectural practice negotiating the technological, political, and cultural intersections of architecture, urbanism, and design. With projects built internationally, our work traverses a broad range of typologies, scales and contexts across the public and private sector. Drawing from iterative, integrative methodologies and driven by research, we endeavor towards innovative solutions that are responsive to and generate from the specificity of each project. We challenge advanced technologies to reconfigure the intersection of form and performance, yielding buildings and urban environments that are iconic and sustainable. Since its founding in 1972 by Design Director Thom Mayne, Morphosis has received 25 Progressive Architecture awards, over 100 American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards, and numerous other honors. Morphosis buildings and projects have been published extensively; the firm has been the subject of 25 monographs and numerous exhibitions. We maintain offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Shanghai, with current site offices in Shenzhen and Milan. For more information, visit www.morphosis.com.